Our solutions are in nature
Despite all the concrete developments and luxuries of the 21st century, we are in universal agreement that nature is essential for humanity’s survival. By providing various ecosystem services, the world’s biodiversity plays an irreplaceable role in providing food, water, air, energy, medicine, and a wide range of products and services—all of which determine the quality of our lives. This International Biodiversity Day (May 22) calls for a key reminder: Our “solutions are in nature” and our focus, attention, and commitments should reflect this awareness.
The estimates are telling: more than two billion people rely on fuelwood to meet their primary energy needs, four billion people rely primarily on natural medicines for their health care, and some 70 percent of drugs used for cancer are natural or are synthetic products inspired by nature. Human dependence on biodiversity is increasing as more and more resources are extracted at the cost of nature’s ability to continue providing these solutions for future generations.
But despite the fact that we turn to the natural world for our solutions, our growing dependence has led to its rapid decline. The Living Planet Index, a global measure of the health of populations of species, reported in 2018 that the world has seen ‘a decline of 60 percent in size of populations of vertebrate species between 1970-2014’. Among them, freshwater species populations have suffered the largest decline of 83 percent, which on an average means a decline of around four percent a year from 1970. Habitat degradation and loss, and overexploitation are responsible for more than two thirds of the threats for all animal species.
Even after 27 years since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, where the first global commitment for biodiversity conservation was agreed upon in order to avoid a scenario of further biodiversity loss, the problem has amassed in severity. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has three main objectives: conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of the components of biological diversity, and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.
Nepal ratified the CBD on 23 November 1993, and the convention was enforced in Nepal from 21 February 21 1994. Nepal has expressed its commitment to meet the objectives and targets of the convention through various acts, plans, and policies. The National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2014-2020, a guiding framework for the management of Nepal’s biodiversity on a sustainable basis for the benefit of present and future generations, is one such example.
While Nepal has made significant achievements in biodiversity conservation, we are also at a critical juncture in our development trajectory. As Nepal moves forward in its phase of rapid development, the future of key major freshwater sources and terrestrial biodiversity hangs in a precarious balance. Habitat loss through human encroachment, infrastructure development, agriculture expansion along with unsustainable harvesting, forest fires and overgrazing, continue to threaten Nepal's biodiversity.
All these threats vary in impact, according to scale, intensity and irreversibility, and need to be identified, prioritized, and addressed accordingly. In this phase of growth, we have the opportunity to learn from changing development paradigms that highlight the role of sustainability. Factoring nature’s role as a solution-provider is vital as we devise economic solutions for recovery.
Humanity’s relationship with nature demands urgent revisiting and reestablishment. Year 2020 was supposed to be a key juncture in this history, with major dialogues, deliberations, and decisions to be made around climate change, and biodiversity conservation largely for improving the quality of human lives. But today, amid the tragedy of the Covid-19 pandemic and all its economic and social implications, we are forced to realize the long-standing global environmental crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.
We are at the point of time when biodiversity loss is at its peak, or as some experts put it, “a tipping point.” Given that we understand the value of biodiversity better and we now know the scale of the problem—and the potential scale of the solution as well—we have the opportunity to ‘bend the curve’ or even reverse the loss of biodiversity for the well-being of humans and all life forms on earth.
Post-2020, the CBD has an ambitious vision where by 2050 biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet, and delivering benefits essential for all people. To contribute to this global vision and the national vision of ‘Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali,’ Nepal will also need to establish a post-2020 roadmap which determines goals for biodiversity conservation, develops measurable indicators for the same, and identifies an array of actions to support the achievement of these goals.
There is a pressing need to safeguard our planet's natural spaces, stop the loss of species therein (and the diversity of life) and apply a sustainable approach to our production and consumption in order to guarantee adequate food and water for human communities.
Traditional biodiversity conservation interventions such as species, protected area and landscape management will always remain key, but actions must also address major drivers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem changes, considering all emerging threats and challenges. There is a need to come up with approaches and strategies that can contribute to a combination of economic, societal and environmental goals, avoiding trade-offs and emphasizing win-win scenarios—ultimately leading to build a future in which people live in harmony with nature.
The author is the Climate and Energy Lead at WWF Nepal
Education in the time of corona
With the physical closure due to the global coronavirus pandemic, educational institutions around the world including Nepal, are exploring, experimenting, and experiencing other modes of teaching and learning. Social distancing being the most important preventive measure to check the transmission of the coronavirus, educational institutions have responded by canceling the classes in a traditional face-to-face format and moving to an online format, where and when possible. This write-up looks at the online mode of education based on the authors’ online educational engagement as students and teachers, as well as on their reflections on the issue.
The absence of face-to-face interaction among teachers and students, and among students, has been cited as a feature of online education. This is because asynchronous communication is the norm in online learning where participants do not need to be online at a particular time to access and respond to information; they can do so at their own convenience. For example, in one class of the first author as a student, the teacher had uploaded a video recording and associated assignment, and he engaged with this material towards the middle of the day. Although the class was held in the morning, he had slept late due to other assignments and could only engage with the class material later.
However, online education can happen synchronously where the participants come together at a particular time over the internet. And with the availability of applications like Zoom, Skype, Google Meet, GoToMeeting, and TeamViewer students can now engage in face-to-face interactions even online. As a teacher, I mostly invited students to synchronous classes, which allowed me to use class discussions in teaching and learning. Hence we see the availability of both synchronous and asynchronous forms of teaching and learning in online education, which is an advantage not available in traditional in-person education.
Easier documentation of teaching and learning is another vital strength of online education. For example, educational materials including videos are made available prior to a class in an asynchronous mode. Class engagement can be video-recorded with the click of a button in a synchronous mode and made available as soon as the class ends. The video recordings of classroom interactions are a great resource for the evaluation of teaching and learning to make the engagements more effective, both for the teacher and for the students.
As some form of physical distancing will be in place for the foreseeable future, online classes are the only safe method of teaching and learning worldwide, including in Nepal. This makes it imperative for Nepali educators and education planners to reflect on the advantages and challenges of online teaching.
When everything in the country is deeply affected by the pandemic, and the experience of daily life, including educational experience, has changed significantly, online classes to some degree ensure continuity in the channels and habits of learning for students. Additionally, students don’t have to pick up on educational engagement from where they last left long ago in the traditional in-person mode of education. To top it up, online classes are also helping parents to engage children in creative and intellectual pursuits which the traditional in-person education might not leave space for.
Unequal access to high-speed internet is a big challenge for online education in Nepal, as the country exhibits a huge internet infrastructure differences among its regions. Because of this, many people who are not connected by the internet, mostly in rural areas, are failing to participate in online classes, and their absence is depriving them of learning. Such experiences can be disempowering. So the government should focus on closing this gap in technology infrastructure.
Besides the gap in internet accessibility, another significant challenge to online education is inadequate technological competency. Technological competency in both teachers and students is a precondition for successful online teaching and learning, and in the absence of such competence, imparting online education is a challenge for many educators and students. To run online classes in Nepal in the present context would mean excluding those teachers and students who did not have the need, interest, or the opportunity to gain mastery over these learning tools in the past.
Therefore, providing formal training to build competence for the use of online learning platforms and tools and bridging the infrastructure accessibility gap are pre-requisites for effective teaching and learning online, which has now become an essential mode of education globally.
Dahal is a Ph.D. Scholar in Social Work at Boston College, USA, and Dhamala is an Assistant Professor of English at Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus, Nepal
The hard truth behind Kalapani
Recent developments in the Lipulekh pass of the Kalapani region give a message of intent, and not just of India. China too has shown it is not ready to compromise its multifaceted relations with India for Nepal’s benefit. Moreover, Xi Jinping has a soft spot for Tibet: His late father, Xi Zhongxun, was a great friend of the 14th Dalai Lama. Xi Jr. is thus keen on Tibet’s development, which he reckons is possible only with India’s help. This is why he has over the years quietly pushed for the opening of the ‘bilateral’ India-china trade route via Lipulekh.
And now Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh has seen it fit to ‘inaugurate’ the ‘shortest route to Mansarover’ in the middle of a pandemic. A seasoned Nepali foreign policy analyst who has worked extensively in both India and China speculates the inauguration is a subtle message to the Oli government. First, India brokered the unity between the two Madhesi parties against Oli’s wishes. By bringing up Lipulekh even as the Nepali government struggles with the corona crisis, India is now dialing up pressure on him: pressure to distance himself from China.
If Oli gets the message, perhaps the Indians will be amenable to a three-country solution over the Lipulekh route. If not, India will further consolidate its position in Kalapani and even seek additional leverage against Oli. But whatever happens to Nepal’s concerns over Lipulekh, the larger picture doesn’t change: Modi and Xi want to keep the two countries’ trade relations intact at any cost. They know they need each other if they are to successfully tide over the ongoing global economic crisis.
A settlement over Kalapani is not impossible. The region is not as important to India as it was, say, in 1962, when it lost the infamous border war to China. Chinese movements in the region can now be monitored remotely, via satellites or drones; India does not need troops on the ground. This is not to imply Kalapani has lost all its strategic value for India, just that its usefulness has gone down. Yet New Delhi would like Kathmandu to believe that the region is still mighty important for it and that there won’t be easy compromises.
Again, China is not ready to pick a fight with India over Lipulekh or Kalapani. As we saw in Doklam in 2017, these border disputes have many hidden subtexts. The way the Doklam crisis unfolded also showed how hard it is to change the status quo on the border. As Sam Cowen has pointed out, Nepal will struggle to establish its claim over Kalapani as successive Nepali governments ignored the issue for their vested interests, even as India progressively tightened its grip over the region.
One of two outcomes is likely. India will either continue to engage with Nepal on Lipulekh but it won’t commit to anything, further frustrating Kathmandu. Or, if PM KP Oli is ready to shed his ‘pro-China’ mien, the Indians could help him buttress his image via some concession over the disputed territory. Nepal has limited options. It could try to Internationalize Kalapani. But it is hard to see what that will achieve. Such a move is sure to further fuel India’s ire against Kathmandu. Nor will China be too pleased to be dragged into international arbitration by the government it helped shape.
Know impermanence, know the Buddha
The device in which you are reading this article will be junked in a couple years. The hand that is holding it won’t be there in the next hundred years. The eyes that are reading it will stop seeing one day.
Everything changes. The sun, earth, moon—everything. Our bodies, houses, mountains, roads, rivers, forests, they are changing. By the time you finish reading this article, millions of cells in your body will have changed.
It rarely occurs to us that our cars will stop running one day and our loved ones will either go away or die. Even if they stick around, the ‘love’ will change. We don't realize it, because it seems so solid, the whole world seems so intact.
But some people can see it.
Impermanence was the trigger that caused Prince Siddhartha to leave his illusive world one full moon night. We know the story—He saw an old man, a sick man, and a corpse on his tour to the town. He came to know about change and suffering. He realized that his own body that he held so dear, and his wife and son and father whom he loved so much, would also change. They would grow old, get ill, and die one day. That realization changed not only his life, but also those of countless more people in the past two and half millennia.
After enlightenment, Siddhartha spent his life teaching people about impermanence. He told them that failure to see impermanence caused them suffering. He said even a few seconds of meditation on impermanence would bring people infinite merits.
An inspiring story. But chances are, we simply discard it as something great happening only to great people. It cannot affect ordinary people like us. We cannot be Buddhas.
Or there may be denial altogether—Prince Siddhartha was already enlightened; he didn't need to see suffering to free himself from worldly allures. We see old and sick and dead people all the time, but nothing happens. See, we are still safe in our homes, we still have our morning coffee, and we have all the worldly duties, and friends to attend to. Come on, it must have been something deeper and bigger for him.
The mind is a magnificent trickster. Somebody saw impermanence and the whole world changed. He lived it and preached it. A great event happened in the history of mankind. But our mind doesn’t like the idea that things change, and ensures that we don’t learn it—neither from the person’s life story that signifies the realization of change, nor from his direct teachings. No wonder that we are not Buddhas.
